This invention relates to a gate device for automatically admitting passengers in the required number to a loading area of a ski-lift, the opening of the gate being synchronized with the passage of the carriers on the lift.
Turnstyle and other gate devices heretofore known have been concerned with counting passengers or collecting fares and usually are designed to keep passersby in single file or in parallel files.
Recent experiments with chair-lift loading patterns have demonstrated the need for automatic passenger control means synchronized with the passage of the chairs on the lift to admit to the loading area only the proper number of passengers comprising a load for each chair. Furthermore, such experiments include so-called bullwheel-loading systems where passengers to be loaded pass across the path of approaching chairs so as to be aligned with the upward path the chairs are to take thus eliminating the need for the passengers to make a partial turn when reaching the loading area.
An important object of the invention is to provide a gate in the path of passengers approaching the loading area of a ski-lift which cycles in direct relationship to the frequency of the passing carriers and to restrain the passengers to keep them safely out of the travel path of the carriers and yet signal them to advance to the loading area with optimum promptness and in numbers comprising not more than a load for the next approaching carrier.